Writing in Style {Tutorial}

This week my friend and I got together and made these writing notebooks for our students.

Cute, right? She said she stumbled upon the idea online somewhere. If I knew the original source, I would share it with you. If you know the original source, please let me know and I will give credit where credit is due!!

These notebooks were definitely a quick project, it didn't cost much, and now our students will be writing with the most fashionable notebooks around!

For this project you will need:

spiral notebooks (thankfully, our school supplies these, so we didn't have to buy them)

scrapbook paper (I just used some extra pages that I already had on hand)

spray adhesive (my new best friend)

ribbon (we got several cute prints from the $1 bin at Michael's)

paper trimmer (or scissors and a ruler if you don't have one)

newspaper/old tablecloth/something to cover and protect your counter or table

hot glue gun

scissors

The first thing we did was lay out an old (ugly) tablecloth to protect my countertop from overspray.

Next, we cut the scrapbook paper to size. Each page was trimmed to 7 1/8 inches by 10 1/2 inches, but notebooks can be different, so be sure to measure yours first.

Then, we sprayed the covers of the notebooks with the spray adhesive (the greatest craft invention EVER). We sprayed 2-3 at a time. Once the cover was sprayed, we placed the cut paper on the notebook cover. It stuck in place immediately and there were no wrinkles or creases (like you usually get with glue sticks).

Once we finished covering all the notebooks, we then glued some bookmarks to the back page. Obviously, this does not have to be done, but we thought it would make it easier for the kids to easily find their spot as they open their book each day.

To do this, we cut several lengths of ribbon (approximately 14 inches long; we really just eyeballed it). We hot glued the ribbon to the inside of the back cover and then flipped it over to the front page (like those ribbon bookmarks in journals, or the Bible).

We are going to let our students choose their books and give them a blank address label to attach to the front for writing their name.

One last note, initially I did not want to use these notebooks as my students had a hard time using them last year (the pages are a bit daunting for a new second grader). But, then, a colleague gave me a super duper great tip at the training we attended last week. During the first trimester, I will task the kids with writing to the second hole. During the second trimester, they will be tasked with writing between the second and third hole, and during the final trimester, they will be tasked with writing to the bottom of the page. And, most likely they will be taught to skip lines (at first, anyway).

I hope this how-to inspired you to make some fun writing notebooks for your kiddos!

Aimee,Those look great! I've done this before with Mead Composition books, but we used cardstock that the kids decorated with rolling rubber stamps. I'll have to try the spray adhesive instead of glue sticks! Thanks for sharing!Corinna :)♥Teaching Fabulous Firsties!♥